Religion Past and Present
Get access
Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
| Help us improve our service |
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Exorcism
(1,855 words)
[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. New Testament – III. Practical Theology – IV. Liturgy – V. Missiology
I. Comparative Religion Exorcism, latinized from the Greek ἐξορκίζεῖν/
exorkízein, literally “to conjure out,” consists of procedures aimed at removing psychic, social, or material disruptions that are attributed to the presence of undesirable spirits. Exorcism is accordingly practiced worldwide and …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Expectative
(159 words)
[German Version] In Catholic canon law (II), an expectative was the legally binding assurance that an office (benefice) that was not yet vacant would be granted to the beneficiary when that office was vacated. Expectatives came into being after the 12th century, with Alexander III (
Liber Extra 3.8.2) and Boniface VIII (
Liber Sextus 3.7.2) taking action against abuses. All such rights were abrogated by the Council of Trent (session XXIV c. 19
de ref.). While not actually forbidden by current canon law, expectatives lack legal force (
CIC c.153 §3;
CCEO c. 943 §3; similarly
CIC c. 150 §2 19…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Expeditus, Saint
(475 words)
[German Version] I. General – II. Significance in the Voodoo Cult – III. Iconography
I. General Saint Expeditus was a martyr whose existence and name are questionable. The
Martyrologium Hieronymianum mentions him under the date Apr 19 as belonging to a group of Armenian martyrs about whom nothing further is known. His veneration can only be demonstrated from the 18th century on, in the 19th century primarily in Italy and France, sometimes in forms against which the Holy See intervened. According to Delehaye, Expeditus is probably a misspelling of Elpidius. Franz Xaver Bischof Bibliog…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Experience
(3,622 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Church History – IV. Fundamental Theology – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology
I. Philosophy In a broad sense shaped by daily life in the world, “experience” has been understood since Aristotle (
Metaph. 980b28–982a3) as a kind of knowledge of reality that rests on practical contact and is related to paradigmatic individual cases (Gk ἐμπειρία/
empeiría; Lat.
experientia). It does not, therefore, lead to systematic knowledge but remains “knowledge of…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Experience, Personal
(8 words)
[German Version] Consciousness, Self- consciousness
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Experiments, Clinical
(7 words)
[German Version] Clinical Experiments
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Expiation
(3,758 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics
I. Religious Studies While (re)conciliation as an instrument for reaching an amicable settlement in a lawsuit has echoes of the legal ¶ dimension of expiation, the meaning of expiation (appeasement, pacification) refers first of all to the (re)establishment of an undisturbed state or of a “sound” relationship. In contrast to atonement (Re…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Explanation
(521 words)
[German Version] is a fundamental concept in epistemology (cf. Stegmüller). Explanations make the implausible plausible by tracing them back to causes or situating them in a regularly describable context. As a rule, this process occurs in an argument, so explanations are special cases of arguments. What requires explanation depends on the background information. Both singular ¶ events as well as regular occurrences can require explanation. Examples: The fact that a tile fell from the roof and struck a m…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Expression
(294 words)
[German Version] In
monadological metaphysics (G.W. Leibniz, A.N. Whitehead), the internal structures of the fundamental entities are seen as expressions of the entire world, the order of the world; alternatively, as an expression of the internal complexity of the entities that constitute the world (Whitehead). Leibniz, who made the term important in philosophy, defined expression as a “constant and regular relation between… what can be said of the one and of the other” (
Hauptschriften, vol. II, 425). According to B. Sp…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Expressionism
(3,193 words)
[German Version] I. The Term – II. Origin and Character – III. Expressionism and Church
I. The Term In art, there have always been expressive tendencies, and emphasis on the moment of expression. This is true, especially, of German art; one thinks of the late Middle Ages (devotional art) or the late Baroque (Baroque). “Expressionism” is a school of art in the period from 1905–1923. Originating in Germany, it also gripped other countries. Expressionism is not a stylistic concept; ¶ there was no unified canon of expressionist style. Expressionis…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Exsequies
(159 words)
[German Version] Derived from the Latin word
exsequiaes (burial), exsequia is a now rarely used technical term for the burial liturgy as defined, for the Roman Catholic Church, in the Latin
Ordo exsequiarum (1969) and, in accommodation to the necessities of German-speaking areas, in the liturgical book
Die kirchliche Begräbnisfeier in den katholischen Bistümern des deutschen Sprachgebietes (1973). These revised instructions honor the wish of Vatican II that the burial liturgy should “more clearly expres…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Extension and Intension
(174 words)
[German Version] Picking up on G. Frege's distinction between significance and meaning, R. Carnap articulated the distinction between extension and intension for the philosophy of language, which is of similar importance. He asserted that two singular terms have precisely the same extension when they refer to the same object (“evening star,” “morning star”…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Externsteine Rocks,
(117 words)
[German Version] originally a Benedictine rock sanctuary at the southern end of the Teutoburg Forest. It was a replica of Golgotha in Jerusalem, with chapels for the discovery of the cross (dedicatory inscription of 1115) and the exaltation of the cross, a tomb high in the rock and a tomb at the base (Holy Sepulchre). There is a Roman monumental relief of the removal from the cross (24m2), and further, a relief with Adam ¶ and Eve. After the Lippe Reform (1538), it was no longer used for worship. Since 1810, it has been a historic monument. Guntram Koch Bibliography W. Matthes & R. Speckner,
Das Re…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Extra Calvinisticum
(288 words)
[German Version] In the mirror of Lutheran denominational polemics, the term designates a Reformed doctrinal decision concerning Christology which can already be identified in Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter Lombard, and which J. Calvin formulated in terms of the divine Logos, despite his full in-dwelling in the humanity of Christ, as also remaining outside (
extra) Christ and “as in the beginning, filling the whole world” (
Inst. II:13:4). The scope of this disputed doctrinal formulation became apparent in…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus
(441 words)
[German Version] I. Church History – II. Dogmatics
I. Church History The axiom formulated by Origen and Cyprian of Carthage maintains, according to an exclusive interpretation, that “outside the Catholic Church… not only pagans, but also Jews, heretics, and schismatics will not share in eternal life” (Council of Florence, 1442; Council of Basel). For Boniface VIII (1302), membership in the church becomes concrete in submission to the pope. The end of the closed medieval world required a restricted doctrine of the
votum baptismi (DH 1524) or ¶
ecclesiae (DH 3871): In the event of…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
(548 words)
[German Version] To date, there has been no empirical proof for the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. However, if one star in ten has planets like the earth, as our sun does, and if the Milky Way galaxy consists of half a trillion stars, then some 50 billion stars in our galaxy alone could produce life. And astronomers estimate that there could be as many as 100 billion galaxies. The scientific question is still open: are we on earth alone and unique, or do we have cosmic company? ¶ The theological question is: would the discovery of intelligent …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Extrinsic
(91 words)
[German Version] In Catholic theology, “extrinsicism” refers to those definitions of the relationship between nature and grace that emphasize its external features (
extrinsece) and thus neglect the experience of grace. M. Blondel criticized the extrinsic elements of the Catholic
natura pura concept; K. Rahner developed his fundamental theology in reaction to extrinsicism. In a theoretical sense, extrinsic can also characterize the relationship between the enterprise of fundamental theology and the content of faith (Intrinsic). Risto Saarinen Bibliography M. Seckler, “Zu …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Eyck, Jan van
(262 words)
[German Version] (c. 1390/1400 [?], Maaseik – buried Jun 9, 1441 in Bruges). From around 1422 until 1424 Jan van Eyck was the court artist of Prince John of Bavaria (Count of Holland) and worked after John's death for Duke Philip of Burgundy. Information about Eyck's life comes from entries in the account books of these two clients, whose residences he decorated, and the signatur…
Source:
Religion Past and Present